


from very far away

by respoftw



Series: 35 Ways To Say I Love You In The Pegasus Galaxy [18]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s04e20 The Last Man, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 21:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8118337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: John realises something when he's 48,000 years away from Rodney.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [writerdragonfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerdragonfly/gifts).



> It was the very lovely writerdragonfly's birthday yesterday so this is dedicated to her as a slightly belated gift....

Twenty-five years.  Rodney had spent twenty-five years of his life working on a way to save him.  John wasn’t sure he could fully comprehend that fact, not really.  In comparison, accepting that 48,000 years had passed in the span of a minute had been much easier to process.  He had the evidence in front of him after all.  But then again, he had Rodney in front of him too.  

John hadn’t been surprised to find Rodney here, even if it  _ was _ just as a hologram with slightly more hair than he would have expected a sixty year old McKay to have.  Of course Rodney would be here.  He saved the day, saved John.  That’s what he did.

John had taken it as an accepted fact that Rodney would have figured out a way to fix this.  He’d even forgotten a time or two that it was a computer simulation he was speaking to instead of the ‘ _ great Dr. Rodney McKay _ ’ himself.  He hadn’t really stopped to dwell on just how Rodney,  _ his Rodney _ , could have done it.

The picture the hologram painted of McKay’s last twenty-five years was bleak.  John didn’t want that for him, hated that he’d lived through that.  Twenty-five years of teaching basic physics in a local community college, pushing everyone who could ever have gotten close away as he worked tirelessly and endlessly on a way to bring John back.  Without anyone there to pull him back, to wind him down, to laugh with him, to - - John’s chest felt tight with the guilt of it.  He knew how McKay got when the work pulled at him like that; had made it part of his mission for the past four years to snap him out of it, to remind him that there was life outside the equation on the board. It killed him that, with him gone, there was noone left to do that for him.

Rodney - the holographic Rodney - finished his brief tale of the past twenty-five years and John cleared his throat.

“Well,” he said through a dry mouth, “I guess I’ve had a tough day  but you’ve had a tough twenty-five years.”

Rodney just shrugged it off and John had to marvel once again at how nuanced the responses of the simulation were.  That was just like his Rodney, arrogant and demanding of praise over the little things but strangely quiet and humble when it came to the big stuff, the stuff that John still wasn’t sure he could comprehend.

“Now, if this works,” Rodney said, “I’ll be waiting right here when you come out.”

John closed his eyes and breathed out.  “And if it doesn’t work?”

He didn’t need to watch Rodney’s face falter to know the answer.  He nodded at Rodney’s words and thought about what he’d want his last words to be.  “In the past twenty-five years, you didn’t happen to notice who won the Super Bowl, did you?”  he asked instead.  Well, it wasn’t like it was the real McKay anyway.

Rodney raised his hand in a farewell gesture and John was distracted by it for a moment.  Rodney’s hands were still big and powerful looking, even underneath the liver spots.  

“Good luck, John,” Rodney said and John smiled.  He loved hearing Rodney call him John, it didn't happen nearly as often as he wanted it to so every time it did was like a gift.  He really wished he could rethink his could-be last words again but the freezing cold chill of the stasis chamber settling against his skin kicked in before he could even open his mouth.

Waking up from stasis was always disorienting.  Rodney was standing exactly where John had last saw him, looking exactly the same and John’s first thought was that the stasis hadn’t worked.  Then the heat hit him.

_ “Jesus Ch - “ _

“We don’t have time for that,” Rodney interrupted.  “Your idea bought us some time but you can’t stay too long here, any prolonged exposure to this heat and you won’t make it to the ‘gate.”

Rodney sounded as close to panicked as John had heard the hologram get and it brought back the realisation of just how much Rodney had sacrificed to get him here.  John knew without a doubt that he would have done just as much had their roles been reversed.  

“Oh God,” he breathed out a gasp of air.  “Rodney, I think I love you.”

Rodney froze for a second, the holographic image flickering wildly in the oppressive atmosphere.  

“Well,” John urged, “say something.”

“I wasn’t programmed for this variable,” Rodney, no, not Rodney -  _ the holograph _ \- whined.  “I didn’t - - why would I - - John, we need to go NOW.”

John ran, the holograph urging him on every step of the way. The air was thick and John could feel his skin baking in the heat but all his focus was on reaching the gate, on getting back home and making sure that this, none of this ever happened.

Dialling out quickly and running down the stairs towards the event horizon, John looked over his shoulder one last time to see Rodney, flickering and old and still with too damn much hair rocking back on his heels in the middle of the ‘gate room.

“Good luck, John,” Rodney said again.

John nodded.  He could get used to hearing that name from Rodney’s lips.  He hoped that he’d get the chance to.

John crashed through the gate to the welcome sight of P-90s pointed at him.

He’d never been so glad to be home.

“John?” Carter sounded shocked.

John ignored her, all his focus instead on Rodney.   _ His Rodney _ .

“It worked,” he said, crossing over towards them.  “It worked.  Rodney, you’re a genius.”

“I am?” Rodney asked.  

John nodded.  “Next time though?  You need to program that variable in.”

“What?  What variable? Colonel, what’s going on?  It’s been twelve days, where the hell have you - - “

Twelve days.  John’s mind snapped back to attention.  “There’s still time, she won’t have had the baby yet.  Here’s what we need to do - - “

There would be time later to change that Colonel into John.  He was sure of it.  He had 48,000 years of proof after all.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, you can find me on [Tumblr](http://buffycuddlespigs.tumblr.com)


End file.
